WWE Planning Significant Change For CM Punk When He Returns To TV
Change could be coming for CM Punk when he returns to WWE TV this summer.
The last time CM Punk appeared on WWE television was on the Raw after WrestleMania 42 on April 20th.
Since then, there’s been all kinds of speculation about whether Punk had issues with management or if there might be another reason he’s been away for nearly two months.
In the build-up to his outstanding WrestleMania 42 match with Roman Reigns, which saw Punk drop the World Title to Reigns, Punk was working a very busy schedule and had been for the past three years.
CM Punk’s WWE absence was recently described by Wrestlevotes as a break for a hard-working veteran wrestler.
“It’s a well-deserved rest for a guy who’s been going, outside of injury, for three straight years. Just main evented WrestleMania—get a little time off. He’ll be back in no time, right back at the top of the card. It is not true they have no plans for CM Punk.”
There were also rumors that CM Punk’s WWE return could be on the July 6th edition of Raw in Chicago, which is where Punk lives.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Dave Meltzer reports that WWE’s plan for Punk is to have him become a part of SmackDown instead of Raw, which is where he’s been since he returned to WWE in November 2023.
“The plan right now is for him to return on Smackdown, which is basically a balancing act. The belief is with Raw having Reigns, Rollins, The Usos, Fatu, Femi, Logan Paul and Breakker that Punk made more sense on Smackdown with a top tier of Rhodes, Gunther, Ripley and soon to be Punk, Orton and McIntyre. Plus Rhodes vs. Punk has been a direction.
The return date of 7/6 Raw in Chicago makes sense, although that is a Raw date, not Smackdown, but that’s really not material in the sense Chicago does make sense for him to appear.”
Meltzer writing that “Rhodes vs. Punk has been a direction” is a reference to their segment on the April 20th Raw, when Punk met Rhodes in the ring on Raw and teased that he was coming for the WWE Title in the future.
A match like Cody Rhodes vs. CM Punk is obviously worthy of a SummerSlam main event for the two-night spectacular on August 1 & 2, but it’s also a match WWE could save for WrestleMania next year.
CM Punk Thought WWE Would Change His Name
In an interview earlier this year, CM Punk talked about wrestling under that name for many years before joining WWE in 2006. He thought WWE would change his name, but it didn’t.
“So when I went and got trained, like I was wrestling in a backyard when I was 15 years old, I was CM Punk. That’s always been your—because Punk was my nickname. You know what I mean? Like I was a little punk kid. You know the older parents, ‘you little punk,’ you know? And instead, to me, I was like how is that insulting? Like I wore that like a badge, right? I was proud of that.”
“But when it came time to quote unquote go pro, you know, I find a training school, I get brought in the right way, broken in. And I’m trying to come up with a cool code name, you know what I mean? And my trainers looked at me, and they’re like, ‘What are you doing? You’re Punk. Just be Punk,’ right? And I was like, ‘Oh, okay.’ I thought maybe I had to kind of leave that behind.”
“And then when I signed with WWE, I thought for sure that’s it. They’re going to change it. Because we do that sometimes. We changed people’s names, and I thought I was going to be an astronaut, or you know what I’m saying, like I don’t know what they were going to do with me. And somehow, I made it to television as CM Punk. You know, like I’m just fortunate that way, I suppose.”
It is now 30 years since the 47-year-old Punk started in pro wrestling that name not only stuck with him, but it’s become legendary, just like him.